I hope you’re all having a great week. I remembered to take the garbage out on time, so our garage stench won’t be knocking over the buzzards this week.

My big news of the week: Our FREE podcast chronicling comic book industry, art, and pop culture news, reviews & interviews is finally up on iTunes for all of you to subscribe to or download at your convenience. The Web site that takes you right there to subscribe or download episodes is here:http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id373866909. The Web site describing the shows, etc. is http://www.itscomicbookday.com. Our production company is Farpoint Media out of Arizona, and we offer up a huge thanks to our audio engineer/producer Michael Mennenga for all of his technical support. If you have any comments, questions or guest requests for our show, please call our podcast hotline at 206.350.6326. We’d love your feedback.

The shows we’ve recorded thus far include Charlie Athanas (the artist for the first digital comic, “Shatter,” from First Comics), Scott Hampton (comic book artist, Simon Dark, Batman), Steve Smith (Editor in Chief, MonsterScene magazine, author and my best friend) Michael W. Kaluta (illustrator, Starstruck, Shadow) and Craig Elliott(illustrator/animator, Bee Movie, The Enchanted, Princess and the Frog). If you are interested in advertising opportunities on our show, please contact my wife through email – denise@writebrainmedia.com and she will brief you on the various plans.

Movie Review: I just saw “Robin Hood” and if you, like me, are into visuals, go see it. The film is gorgeous. The story? Not so much. I was sorely disappointed in the writing, but the visuals made up for it.

The Oil Spill: This Gulf oil spill reminds me of the time I lived in Fort Lauderdale as a kid. We always had to check first before going to the beach to see if the beach and water were clear of the tar balls naturally forming from leaks in the ocean floor. I wonder if it’s still that way. Anybody know?

As an adult, I lived in Shalimar, Florida (greater Fort Walton Beach, in the Florida Panhandle) for more than 25 years. I’m told by our videographer friend Steve Baker (of SB Video Productions) that so far, the beaches are still pristine and there’s no oil in the water there, so do vacation there if you can. It’s an incredibly beautiful part of the U.S. and I hope it stays that way. I know my environmentalist friend and author of many of my books, Del Stone Jr., will be the first one volunteering for beach clean up duty. If you like great horror or sci-fi, do check out his work. He’s a wonderful writer and a great friend to me and my family. He won a Bram Stoker Award for writing my book “Dead Heat,” about my character Hitch, a motorcycle zombie. Del and I were always ahead of our time. If only we had waited until this century to publish that book…

Appearances: I will be at the “Drink and Draw” event at the Lucky Number Bar & Grill in Chicago this Friday at 7 p.m., doing live drawing. The first weekend in June I will be at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. Please come by & say hello!

Stephen Perry Update: In other news, I read that two people have been arrested for allegedly being involved in the disappearance of my colleague, comic book writer Stephen Perry. If I hear more, I will let you know. I’m told his son is safe with his mother, and that was a relief to hear.

How to Connect with Me Online: As always, thanks for reading. Your feedback and comments are always welcome. I’m on FaceBook, and please follow me on Twitter: @DaveDorman. If you’re on LinkedIn, connect with me and my wife (Denise McDonald Dorman). Neither of us will “IDK” anyone.